MySpace has taken a big step today on trying to filter out copyrighted content in the form of both audio and video. The campaign they launched is called Take Down Stay Down and aims to prevent the reposting of copyrighted content once it has already been removed.
Here’s what the press release by MySpace had to say:
“We have created this new feature to solve a problem that has long frustrated copyright holders and presented technical challenges to service providers – how to prevent copyrighted content from being re-posted by the same or a different user after it has been taken down by the copyright owner,” said Michael Angus, EVP and General Counsel for Fox Interactive Media. “MySpace is pleased to be the first website to implement a more effective solution to this challenging problem. This is a ground-breaking and unprecedented benefit for copyright owners that re-enforces MySpace’s position as the leader in copyright protection on the internet.”
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When a content owner informs MySpace that a user has improperly posted its content onto MySpace Videos, not only is the video promptly removed by MySpace, but MySpace also creates a digital fingerprint of the video content and adds it to its copyright filter, which is based on industry-leading Audible Magic technology. If any user tries to upload the same content that has been removed, the filter will recognize the digital fingerprint and block the content from being uploaded. This way, when copyright owners remove content from MySpace, they will have greater comfort that it will stay down and not be reposted. MySpace is the first to offer this feature to copyright owners.
As reported in the press release, MySpace is relying on the technology from Audible Magic to do all of the filtering. If this campaign is successful I’m sure Audible Magic will become worth a lot of money in no time, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see some big company acquire it. This is something that both Google Video and YouTube badly needs, so Google is a prime candidate to be the one to acquire them.
I’m sure people will find ways around the new filtering system on MySpace, but it will probably be enough to prevent the more casual users from trying to upload copyrighted content. What do you think? Is it going to be a flop or is MySpace on to something?
They may be onto something
I think they are definitely on to something, but will the number of people watching the videos drop? A lot of the people I know only view copyrighted material, but maybe some of these companies will strike up some deals.
I would have expected YouTube to have more deals with companies than they already do though.
I’d like it if Google did this for Google Vids and YouTube – just to prevent repeated copies of a single video appearing in search results and pushing down the thing you’re actually searching for. To be honest I’d be even happier if Google looked at the comments on GVid and YouTube in the same way – prevent those bloody annoying spam messages that braindead idiots repost.
I normally never read through the comments on the videos, especially on YouTube. Sometimes there are people who leave thousands of comments which is just insane, and the spamming makes them even worse to read as you said.